Time passed quickly. It was now the day after the farcical battle in and around Theed, Naboo's capital...
By now, it was New Year's Day, January 1, in the 25,021st year since the founding of the Galactic Republic. It should have been a day of celebration for every member world of the Republic. But unfortunately, here on Naboo, an insignificant agricultural planet near the edge of the Outer Rim, there were no celebrations at all!
In fact, not only were there no grand celebrations like in years past, there wasn't even a single living person in the streets.
Instead, the streets were patrolled by squads of B1 battle droids carrying E-5 blaster rifles, or crossed by droids marching in neat formation, while Destroyer droids occasionally rolled past with a roar.
And of course, besides all those droids, there were MTT troop transports parked at the sides of the roads, standing by, and menacing AAT hover tanks!
The reason things had turned out this way was that the entire planet of Naboo had now been completely occupied by the Trade Federation's B1 battle droids!
By now, almost all the "Naboo people" had been miserably locked up in concentration camps. Had their Queen Padmé Amidala not walked into a trap of her own accord and been captured yesterday afternoon, they would probably already have been shipped beyond the borders of the Galactic Republic by the Trade Federation Viceroy. How else could they have spent the first day of the new year on their home planet?
And so,
At this moment, in the lowest level of Naboo's splendid, historically rich, classical palace—the beautiful and elegant royal palace that should have belonged to the Queen of Naboo—Queen Padmé Amidala, her handmaiden, her guards, her royal pilot, that Jedi Master, and his apprentices were all